Ask: What does the Course mean by "ideas leave not their source"?
“…What does the Course mean when it says: ideas leave not their
source? I just can’t seem to get a true understanding of that.” LDP
“Ideas leave not their
source, and their effects but seem to be apart from them. Ideas are of the
mind. What is projected out, and seems to be external to the mind, is not
outside at all, but an effect of what is in, and has not left its source.”
(T-26.VII.4)
“There is no world
apart from your ideas because ideas leave not their source, and you maintain
the world within your mind in thought.” (W-132.10)
Your experience of peace or conflict is the effect of
thoughts (beliefs) in your mind. You may project the source of your experience
outward and feel that someone or something else has caused your experience, but
that does not make it so. Your “world” (experience) has its source in your
thoughts (beliefs, perceptions), which never actually leave you when you deny
them by projecting them away.
For example, let’s say a friend has treated you in a way
that you see as unfair. Because you believe this, you are angry with them. Your
view of their actions determines how you experience their actions. After your
initial emotional response (defensive anger), you can think it through. Did
they really treat you unfairly? Was that their intention or an unintended
consequence of actions they took? The answer you come to will determine whether
you continue to be angry and whether you continue to have this person in your
life. You also want to look at your own determination of their actions as
“good” or “bad” or “right” or “wrong” and at the story you tell yourself with
these judgements.
You see how you build your world with your thoughts? The
source of your thoughts is you, not someone or something else. And your
thoughts never leave you.
This is important to know so you can change your experience
by changing your mind.
“A thought is in the
mind. It can be then applied as mind
directs it. But its origin is where it must be changed, if change occurs. Ideas
leave not their source. The emphasis this course has placed on that idea is due
to its centrality in our attempts to change your mind about yourself. It is the
reason you can heal. It is the cause of healing.” (W-167.3)
Another corollary to this idea is that, as a thought, or
part of, God’s Mind, you have never left God, your Source. Therefore, the ego’s
(personal thought system’s) premise for guilt is erroneous.
“I walk with God in
perfect holiness.
Today's idea but
states the simple truth that makes the thought of sin impossible. It promises
there is no cause for guilt, and being causeless it does not exist. It follows
surely from the basic thought so often mentioned in the text; ideas leave not
their source. If this be true, how can you be apart from God? How could you
walk the world alone and separate from your Source?” (W-156.1)
“God wills you learn
what always has been true: that He created you as part of Him, and this must
still be true because ideas leave not their source.” (T-26.VII.13)
>>>>
If you want to benefit from my
experience and lighten your process, email me at Liz@acimmentor.com
to set up an appointment for mentoring. Learn more at www.acimmentor.com.
Comments
The end result was years of unrelenting confusion. I had the will, the determination to figure it out but what was once an asset became a true nightmare. The harder I tried the worse it got. "I and You" were other words that sent me down the rabbit hole.
I don't know if this is what you are going through but I wanted to mention it.
I don't even remember the circumstances. But I can vaguely remember my reaction to this. It was confusion. It was almost like I had been handed something but had no idea what I was holding.
I can remember a kind of mental blankness, but that really doesn't describe it. My avenues were cut off. I couldn't get angry again, that was past. I couldn't go through this long convoluted explanation. I would look like a fool or at the least feel like one. Did I feel cheated out of the effort I had put into my anger? Like I was somehow unappreciated? Or worse, disrespected?
Standing there, holding this unknown and unknowable thing, the ego was close to madness.
Love, peace and gratitude everyONE <3
Anyhoo...what I understand in what I call the "timespace collapse" I've been experiencing (as in seeing myself here at Hannah's months before I got here) is not a future that is really past because somehow it's already happened, but instead that all of time really happened at once. The moment the idea of not-Truth arose it was undone by Truth's all-encompassing nature. Only within the idea of time (the opposite of Timelessness, the state of Truth) does it seem as though the idea began long ago and will be undone in some indefinite future. So, that one instant of undoing we experience in time as unfolding in a linear fashion, but it all really happened at once.
The Course is full of these one liners. There are two things going on with “Ideas leave not their source.” There is the intellectual understanding of how it fits into the Course teachings. A piece of the puzzle so to speak. The other is there is very strong message being given if we will take the time to look at it.
In our high tech culture we never question for a second that the things we say (often in anger) are seen as physical missiles out there to hurt someone. And with that belief people often are. But the Course asks us to visualize the victim in this case having internalized how this one liner actually works for them. The victim looks at what is being said to them and knows instinctively that the words have nothing to do with them and they move on. The words and thought behind the attack belong only to the personal mind that thought them up. Words leave not their source.
On the other side, if you like being on a pedestal it isn’t so great either. The compliment is given but it too is just a thought of the personal mind giving it. Of course, we eagerly lay claim to it and bask in its warmth. No one is doing anything ‘wrong.’ It takes a lot of discipline, time and effort to internalize the real power in this one liner. But once you have it, it will set you free!
Speaking of which...you should see the size of celery here. Honest to god, I've never seen anything so huge! Double the length and width of what I was used to. I couldn't stop exclaiming and laughing right there in the produce section of the supermarket. Ms Hannah had to walk away from the crazy American...I needed the other 'fridge just for the celery, see...
Have you ever read The Fatal Shore, The epic of Australia's founding" by Robert Hughes? It's a tome, but is excellently written and extremely interesting.
Back to raisins. I have gotten a curiosity about the fruits and vegetables you have in Australia. I'll check out these raisins!
Much here is very much like the US. Supermarkets are laid out the same, etc. Sometimes even the same brands, but those are usually more expensive. But then I run into things that are unfamiliar or are missing. For example, of course their tea aisle offers much more, being tea drinkers. But good luck finding decent salad dressing! It's a tiny section here.
“Projection still has this “hurling” connotation, because it involves hurling something you do not want, and regard as dangerous and frightening, to someone else.” Helen scribes as Jesus dictates.
“A Course in Miracles, Based on the original handwritten notes of Helen Schucman”, Complete & Annotated Edition, Circle of Atonement.
Kindle edition.
Devil Inside
INXS
Here come the woman
With the look in her eye
Raised on leather
With flesh on her mind
Words as weapons
Sharper than knives
Makes you wonder how the other half die
How the other half die
Makes you wonder, wonder, wonder
Warner/Chappell Music, INC.